23 August 2011

Desire Line Made Permanent

Readers may recall the post about the City of Copenhagen's respect for citizens' Desire Lines. The above photo shows a temporary bicycle lane on a stretch of sidewalk that bicycle users kept using. The City tested out a bike lane there. The original post is here: Subconscious Democracy and Desire, where you can read about the concept of Desire Lines, too.

The temporary Desire Line has now been made permanent and bicycle users on this stretch are no longer rolling over the traffic laws. Instead, their Desire Line has been made legal.

Desire Lines can be big or small. Here's another little example near Dybbøls Bridge. Cyclists coming down from the bridge would invariably roll down the bank here, instead of carrying on to the intersection 100 m, or so, behind the camera.

Kilometres cycled by Copenhageners so far today

Copenhagenize.com is the blog of Copenhagenize Design Company. Online since 2007 and highlighting the cycling life in Copenhagen and around the world.

40 years ago Copenhagen was just as car-clogged as anywhere else but now 41% of the population arriving at work or education do so on bicycles, from all over the Metro area. 56% of Copenhageners themselves use bicycles each day. They all use over 1000 km of bicycle lanes in Greater Copenhagen for their journeys. Copenhagenizing is possible anywhere.